What Have I Done?
by The Dragon Legend
Summary: A familiar scene, told from a different point of view.


**I finally did it! I finally wrote something! I set up this account months ago but I didn't do anything with it until now. This is my first fanfiction so it's not the best thing ever, but I think it's okay.  
**

**I don't own Shadow and Maria. I also don't own the G.U.N. soldier, I just came up with a random name for him.**

What Have I Done?

My name is Jonny. I am a soldier of G.U.N. Today is the day I retire. There's going to be a big ceremony, and I'm going to get an award for fifty years of service. It's the kind of award that someone brave and righteous should get, not me. I am not the hero they call me. I proved it a long time ago. It was my first mission as a G.U.N. soldier. This mission was marked as a success in the records, but I will always consider it as my greatest failure.

Our mission: kill or capture the Ultimate Life Form. As we traveled to the space colony: ARK, our commander told us that the creature we were looking for was very dangerous and destructive.

"The Ultimate Life Form is a three-foot tall, black-and-red hedgehog-looking thing," announced our commander, "Now I know that dosen't sound very dangerous, but remember, that thing is designed to be a living weapon. It's more powerful than it looks."

I remember thinking, _Why a hedgehog? Why not base the Ultimate Life Form off of something scarier, like a giant lizard or something?_

We finally reached the colony. Our commander ordered us to arrest the scientists. I went looking for the big prize, the Ultimate Life Form. I found it in the company of a young girl. They ran and I chased them. The girl was having a hard time keeping up the creature. It noticed this and grabbed her hand, pulling her along.

Suddenly, they ducked into a room full of escape pods and locked the door behind them. Unfortunately for them, our commander had given us special cards that would allow us to bypass any lock on any door in the ARK. It was only thirty seconds before the door opened and I stepped into the room.

The creature was inside one of the pods. It saw me and gasped, "Maria, look out!"

I was surprised. _The commander didn't tell us it could talk. _It didn't matter. What mattered was that if the creature reached the surface, it would cause unprecedented destruction. It was my mission to prevent that.

The girl, Maria, was at the controls. Her hands were on a lever that would begin a countdown that, once started, could not be stopped. I couldn't allow her to release the creature. I pointed my gun at her.

"Stop!" I yelled, "Back away from the lever."

She did not back away, instead she glared at me, like I was the bad guy.

"I'm warning you! I will shoot!" I didn't want to shoot her, but if it meant preventing the deaths of thousands of others, I would do it. I wasn't going to back down and the look in Maria's eyes told me that she wasn't going to back down either.

She pulled the lever; I pulled the trigger.

The countdown began.

"MARIA!" The creature threw itself at the glass that surrounded it. I stood in shock, just beginning to grasp the magnitude of what I had just done.

_Did I really just shoot a little girl? But it was for the fate of the world, right?_

Maria was on the floor, covered in blood. With an effort, she lifted her head and spoke, "S-shadow?"

The creature stopped thrashing and kneeled on the floor of the pod, hands and face pressed against the glass. "Maria?"

"Shadow I want you to promise me something. I want promise me that you'll protect the world and give everyone chance to be happy."

The creature was beginning to cry. Its voice was steady when it spoke however, "I promise Maria. I'll do whatever it takes. Just please don't leave me!"

Maria put her head back on floor and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry Shadow, but I can't go with you."

The creature's voice cracked. "No."

"Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"NOOOOOOO!"

I was alone, the Ultimate Life Form's cry of despair echoing around the room. I was shaken out of my trance by the commander calling over the radio, wanting to know where the Ultimate Life Form was.

I could have told him that the Ultimate Life Form wasn't evil. I could have told him what I saw or pretended not to have seen anything. Instead, I just told him where the creature was going. I was afraid that if I said anything, I would accused of treason.

We went back to the surface and quickly found the escape pod. The creature was still inside, curled in a tight ball of misery. It never even saw us coming. It was captured and locked away in a secure facility while the higher-ups debated on what to do with it. Eventually, the creature was forgotten.

So you see, I don't deserve an award. I have done terrible things. I destroyed an innocent life and broke an innocent heart. Instead trying to fix my mistake, I was a coward about it.

Maria's right: I am the bad guy.


End file.
